Guardians of the Galaxy

I hope that everyone has been able to make it out to the movies this weekend to see Guardians of the Galaxy. If not, definitely make the trip. The non-comic book fan may have never heard of this motley crew of space explorers, but never fear, you won’t forget them after this movie. Honestly would you forget a giant walking and talking tree let alone a raccoon that can do the same? Just don’t call Rocket a raccoon to his face.

First off how will this movie fit in with the rest of the universe that Marvel Studios is creating? This movie will add more to the Thanos storyline. For those who do not remember, that was the giant purple guy during the Avengers ending credits. I am not going to reveal too much to the non-comic fans, but this guy is a big player when it comes to the final frontier in the Marvel world. Whenever he does make an appearance in the comics, it usually takes a mass majority of superheroes to team up and handle him. They bring in all the big guns. Guardians of the Galaxy just adds another page to the story. Thanos, himself, does appear in the movie, played by Josh Brolin. I wouldn’t call it brief, but it isn’t a massive part of the film.

Thanos is just there to pursue another infinity stone, the object that most of this movie focuses on. Film goers should recognize this term from the ending credits scene of Thor: The Dark World. In that scene it was revealed that the tesseract and the aether were indeed infinity stones. In the first Thor movie, it is believed that the Infinity Gauntlet is actually in Odin’s vault, and can be seen in the brief scene involving the frost giants breaking into it. The Infinity Gauntlet is supposed to hold all of the stones and become one the most powerful weapons known to the galaxy. If Marvel even decides to use the gauntlet story, this is where all the infinity stones will tie in. Marvel may even decide to utilize the stones in another manner.

Yes the focus of this film is keeping an infinity stone out of the wrong hands. It brings together a group of prisoners who decide to choose the needs of the whole planet above their own. Although for some, it did take a lot of convincing. What looks to be the most unlikely group of people to ever work together, turns out to be the family that the other was looking for.

The movie is hysterical, probably the funniest damn Marvel movie I have seen yet. Can I talk about Peter Quill a bit? I totally get why he does well with the ladies. He is smooth, a smartass, and is lost in the 80’s. That is a man I can get behind. I have always been entertained by him in the comics, and his charms, while adorable, don’t get too far with my girl, Carol. Captain Marvel happens to be helping out the Guardians at the moment in the comic version, and it has been fantastic. Between deflecting proposals from Peter Quill and trying to stop Rocket from killing her cat. She’s got a lot on her hands, but Peter never stops entertaining. His movie version doesn’t disappoint when compared to that.

Gamora, Rocket, Groot, and Drax make up the rest of the Guardians. Gamora’s character furthers the connection with the rest of the Marvel Studio movies. She is actually the daughter of Thanos, well kind of but you’ll have to watch the movie for rest of that. Rocket supplies the tech side of the group, while Drax, though his reasons are heartbreaking, joins and becomes the muscle. Groot the giant plant, tree, whatever, alien acts as the heart. Don’t mistake his kindness for weakness. That tree can’t beat some ass.

With a kick ass soundtrack that doesn’t seem like it should work, this film is a breath of fresh air. It is the perfect way to end the summer. I am just disappointed that I have to practically wait an entire year for a new Marvel movie. Couldn’t they have balanced out another movie for phase two? A little Doctor Strange? Dare I say Captain Marvel? And no, not the Rock movie. DC has a Captain Marvel as well, and by the time they decided to revive the character in the seventies, Marvel already had a character trademarked with the name. Shazam is what he is commonly known as today. When I say Captain Marvel, I mean Carol Danvers. Even if they choose to do Ms. Marvel instead, I personally think her rebranding and new incarnation is way more badass.

I am non-comic book person but my husband is a comic book junkie. He is also helping raise my son as the next generation of comic book junkie, so I was exposed to a few of the movie elements before I went to see GOTG. I really wanted to like this movie, especially since there is a female on the team who kicks some serious butt. I had a few issues with it mostly because of the representation of women in general. I won’t go too much into it because I don’t want to spoil anything for the folks who haven’t seen it but my issue started with Star Lords mother in the beginning of the film and then carried through women only being slaves, mother figures, or sex objects, or in need of saving (Gamora was supposed to be super badass but she kept getting saved by the male characters). I was disappointed because the Marvel movies have been pretty great about giving women important roles, Captain America and Thor being my favorites. My husband tried to convince me that every character was a stereotype, and I get that, but I wasn’t able to to enjoy the movie as much as I wanted to because of the clear bias in gender roles. I love your write up. Stopping by from #SITS.